KSA behind Israel plans to replace al-Aqsa with temple: Analyst

Saudi Arabia is supporting the Israeli regime in its plan to replace the holy al-Aqsa Mosque with a temple, an analyst tells Press TV in an interview.

Saab Shaath was talking to Press TV on Saturday, one day after Israeli Minister of Housing and Construction Uri Ariel called for the construction of what he called "the Third Temple" to replace the holy site.

“Al-Aqsa Mosque is currently in place of the temple,” Ariel claimed.

Shaath said Saudi Arabia has always provided support for the Zionist regime’s anti-Palestinian moves and “offered under-the-table support for Israel in their alliance against Syria.”

“The only thing, which will stop the Israelis from going that far, is the Arab-Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon,” he said.

Shaath said Israel intends to “secure as much as they can from territories in the West Bank.”

“And they will go as far as the destruction of the existing al-Aqsa Mosque since now they see the Arabic masses got used to the desecration of religious sites as we notice in Syria by the Takfiri groups and the Arab masses have been shut enough to keep it quiet, that’s what they believe,” he added.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is considered the third holiest site in the Muslim world.

Palestinians have denounced the Israeli plan as desecration. They say it is part of the Israeli regime’s ongoing attempts to distort the Arab and Islamic history.

Palestinians argue that al-Quds is the capital of a future Palestinian independent state, and that its heritage should remain intact.